9612017 Micromechanics is the study of how the microstructure of a material affects its microscopic response. It provides the understanding necessary to develop simplified models for design and preliminary analysis. Currently the ability of industry to use micromechanics is limited by the tools available for materials. To facilitate this understanding, means of comparing micromechanical theories to experiments is required. The research addresses these issues with a unique combination of advanced electron microscopy techniques, image processing technologies, and large scale/massively parallel nonlinear finite element methods. Analyses of the representative volume element (RVE) are used to compare micromechanical theories to experiments. The micromechanical modeling of the microstructures is conducted in collaboration with researchers at Alcoa. This project has a balance between theory and experiment. The collaboration with industry will ensure the research issues are realistically addressed.
